Posted: Fri Feb 4th, 2005 01:32 pm

Connecticut Death Row Prisoners on Hunger Strike

Thu Feb 3, 6:20 PM ET
HARTFORD, Conn. (Reuters) - Five prisoners sentenced to be executed in
Connecticut began a hunger strike on Thursday to protest their solitary
living conditions which they called "inhumane and tantamount to
psychological torture."

The inmates said their action was unrelated to the case of serial killer
Michael Ross, whose execution was postponed after his lawyer said prison
conditions may have made him give up his appeals.
Ross was to become the first person executed in New England in 45 years. He
had refused to appeal his death sentence but a federal judge last month
ordered a review of his mental competency and stayed the execution.
"What we are doing is simply refusing to eat for the duration, however
long," the prisoners wrote. "We are NOT doing this in protest of Michael
Ross' execution.
"What we request is not unreasonable: communal recreation," they wrote in a
statement released by The Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Instead of spending almost their entire day in solitary confinement, the
inmates want time out of their cells and a chance to interact with each
other.
"The appeals process takes decades and to endure these conditions of
enforced segregation is inhumane and tantamount to psychological torture,"
the inmates wrote.
Two of Connecticut's eight death row inmates held at the Northern
Correctional Institution in Somers are not participating because they have
diabetes.
Ross was in court on Thursday and it was unclear whether he would join the
hunger strike on his return to prison.
In a New London courtroom, a tearful Ross, who killed eight women in the
1980s, said his lawyer T.R. Paulding was intimidated by Judge Robert
Chatigny into delaying his execution. Last week, the judge called Paulding
and criticized him for helping Ross end his appeals and threatened to revoke
Paulding's law license.
"I will participate in any competency hearing this court orders in order to
protect his (Paulding's) license. That's the only reason I'm doing it," Ross
said.
Ross hired Paulding last year to hasten his execution.